TEXEM UK, the United Kingdom based leadership development organisation is set to host international delegates at York city, to its programme ‘Winning in the age of Ecosystems’ from 24th to 27th August.
TEXEM’s Director, Special Projects, Caroline Lucas in a statement on the organisation’s website, www.texem.co.uk said it will be a rich and rewarding experience for the leaders and CEOs expected from Africa and Europe.
Lucas said during the programme, the delegates will acquire more insights on how to excel in an age of ecosystems.
The Director said that York is a city that has, for over a thousand years, sat at the crossroads of trade, migration, and reinvention adding that there is something fitting about that.
She said among other things, the delegates will spend the time together asking a question that York itself has had to answer many times over the centuries: how do you remain relevant when the world around you keeps changing?
‘That is precisely the question at the heart of this programme. For much of the last century, competitive advantage belonged to the strongest firm, the best run company, the sharpest strategy, the most efficient operation.
‘That era is not over, but it is no longer sufficient. Today, the enterprises that are winning are not necessarily the ones with the strongest individual capabilities. They are the ones that have learned to orchestrate; to build coherent networks of partners, suppliers, regulators, technology platforms, and customers that create value no single firm could create alone.
‘This shift matters everywhere. But I would suggest it matters with particular urgency across the African continent. You are operating in markets where infrastructure gaps, fragmented regulation, and disconnected value chains have historically punished even the best managed organisations.
‘And you are operating at a moment when the African Continental Free Trade Area is beginning to change the physics of the problem; creating, for the first time, the possibility of continental scale ecosystems rather than fifty-four separate national ones,’ Lucas said.
She observed that the leaders who will define the next chapter of African growth will not simply be the ones who run the strongest firms.
Lucas added that they will be the ones who design the strongest ecosystems; who understand interoperability, who align incentives across organisational boundaries, who build the connective tissue between institutions that were never designed to work together.
‘That is challenging work. It is also, I would argue, some of the most consequential leadership work available to any generation, anywhere in the world right now.
‘During the coming programme, we will draw on case studies, frameworks, and, most importantly; on each other. Some of you lead established institutions. Others are building new ones. Some of you know Africa’s markets intimately from within; others bring an outside-in perspective from London, Manchester, or further afield.
‘That diversity is not incidental to this programme; it is the whole point. Ecosystems, after all, are built by people who are different from one another, learning to move in the same direction,’ the TEXEM’s Director said.
Three reputable TEXEM faculty, Professor Wim Vanhaverbeke, Professor Nic Cheeseman and John Peters, are expected to deliver the programme.
Professor Wim Vanhaverbeke is a global authority on Digital Transformation, a Professor (Emeritus) of Digital Strategy and Transformation at the University of Antwerp and Antwerp Management School recognised worldwide for advancing open innovation and ecosystem management.
On industry – focused research, his work explores how digital strategies and innovation ecosystems reshape sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, and energy.
With respect to prestigious academic appointments, he has held visiting professorships at top institutions including the National University of Singapore, Zhejiang University (China), ESADE Business School (Spain), and Politecnico di Milano (Italy).
As an influential scholar, he has published in leading journals such as Organization Science, Research Policy, Technovation, and California Management Review.
He is also a renowned author and editor who has co-edited four books on open innovation and authored Managing Open Innovation in SMEs (Cambridge University Press); Editor-in-Chief of Technovation, the leading innovation management journal.
He advises global corporations and public organisations on ecosystem strategy, sustainability – driven innovation, and digital transformation; delivers executive and MBA programmes worldwide.
As a thought leader bridging academic and practice, he combines rigorous research with practical insight to help leaders harness collaboration and innovation for competitive advantage in the digital era.
Professor Nic Cheeseman is a former Professor and Director of the African Studies Centre at the University of Oxford.
He has advised world leaders including the Secretary-General of the UN, Presidents of nations as well as Global CEOs.
He is a leading scholar on democracy, elections and governance in Africa. Also a regular media commentator and editor of Democracy in Africa.
He has advised governments and international organisations on democratic accountability, good governance, strategic leadership, geopolitics and electoral integrity.
John Peters (RAF officer) is a former Chair of Association of MBAs (Accreditors of top Business Schools such as Harvard, London Business School, Stanford and IMD).
Also a world-renowned Resilience expert with documentary on his life winning Independent Documentary of the Year and was also nominated for a BAFTA award.
He is a former RAF fast jet pilot and Gulf War Prisoner of War; and later Director of Performance at Aston Business School.
He is an international keynote speaker leadership under pressure and leading in turbulence.
The following testimonials from past delegates of TEXEM programmes were also shared in the statement.
‘I found that it’s quite a new approach of workshop than I’m used to because I’ve attended so many workshops organized by other organizations. But, I found that the approach made by TEXEM is quite different.’ ‘…first of all when I found that the first day of the program would be visits to the
Shakespeare’s birthplace and also to visit a chocolate factory, I was skeptical. So, I said, I’m in love with Shakespeare but I just said what is it to do with business or whatever it is. But then, after the visit and then to the two places and coming back and then I could see the collaboration between what I’m supposed to know and I really could understand the issues there,’. – Previous TEXEM delegate. Ambassador Mustafa Sam Non-Executive Director Jaiz Bank.
‘TEXEM is a very serious consultancy organization. I’m rating them as such because of the caliber of resources that have been mobilized to interact with us to discuss all the issues that are needed in building our leadership capacity further, in ensuring that theTax Appeal Tribunal becomes the best adjudicator of taxes in Africa and even globally. So I am very, very impressed with them, and I recommend them to other institutions that are serious about ensuring effective leadership
and management,’. -Previous TEXEM delegate. Prof. Kabiru Isa Dandago Bayero, Hon Commissioner Tax Appeal Tribunal.
‘So many things have inspired me because I have a new look at what leadership is all about now, and then I think the operation and also aspects of that has to do with what I need to do and make decisions at the right time that involves what the future holds. It’s something that really has inspired me, so many ideas; of course I can’t thank the faculties enough you know in terms of what they have done,’. -Previous TEXEM delegate, Muhammad Bello Aliyu, Registrar/CEO, Computer Professional Council of Nigeria (CPN).